The Loot of a Thousand Nations
by valkurion-universe
Summary: Treasure Planet, in the Korra Universe. Opal Beifong is a lonely woman living on the backwater planet of Zaofu with her single and scorned mother Suyin, as well as close friend, Professor Asami Sato PhD. She wishes to travel the Etherium, and for the moment tries death defying stunts... Until one day a strange alien crashes at the Inn... With some treasure that leads to another...
1. May Her Spirit Soar

_AN: So I've tried to upload this thing before, but fell bar behind with the uploads and the writing. So take two, and this time I'll get it all out trust me. Any questions please don't put them in reviews, please post positive words and criticisms. If you do have questions just PM me. I've also done this with Atlantis. I called it 'The Lost City of the South'. Also if you want to commission me, PM me. And check me out on AO3 at 'Valkurion' because people are hellbent on kicking me off of this site._

* * *

 **The Loot of a Thousand Nations**

 **Chapter 1 - May Her Spirit Soar**

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The little girl opened the book, as she did every single night without fail and always as the sky and thus her room changed to a particular shade of darkness.

Always, on every single night, she brought out the same binding of pages with the holographic interface to allow the images to pop out of the parchment like a home movie before her child lime green eyes. It was always spectacular and always made her blissfully content enough to fall asleep within moments after the conclusion of the tale. She loved it, as of course a child at near enough the age of seven would. It was pretty much all she lived for; the rawness and unadulterated truth within the pages and the colorful pictures. It was real, to her at least.

Her tale always started, as many others usually did, on a starry night deep in the swirling abyss of the deep Celestial when the winds were calm and contrite with very little in the way of disturbance and nothing to ruin the blissfulness of the galaxy. It was beautiful, the lack of atmosphere and therefore the abundance of it that made Opal Beifong truly believe she was a disembodied consciousness in the middle of the heavens to observe the tale.

On the clearest of nights when the winds of the Etherium were calm and peaceful, the great merchant ships from the sprawling empire of the Fire Consulate with their cargoes of gold, silvers, and other such riches from the upper classes felt safe and secure. Little did they ever suspect that they would be preyed upon by hordes of vicious cutthroats and… Pirates.

And the most feared of all these pirates, was the notorious Captain Noatak, the infamous 'Amon'.

"Fire!" The Captain ordered across his deck, signaling his crew of vagabonds, cutthroats, and rogues to begin bombarding the large and illustrious freighter. The smaller and agiler attack ship moved alongside the large hulk in an attack pattern, blasting key locations along the starboard side with the largest plasma cannons and then crippling the main propulsion systems with the smaller machine guns to ensure the freighter was not going anywhere at all. The elite and prestigious guests in the ballrooms and fancy gathering halls were subdued into perpetual darkness and frenzies of panic while the pirate craft rose up to engage in a broadside with the main deck of the larger ship, the cutthroat bandits brandishing gleaming cutlasses and powered firearms fully loaded with plasma rounds, blasting the enemy sailors and crew with shots to the chest and head, cutting up the crew in minutes and easily overpowering the civilians crew, carving their way to the true goal; the loot.

Like a Candarian zap-wing overtaking its prey-

"Opal Toph Beifong!" Her mother yelled as she quickly opened the door to reveal herself in her nightgown and slippers with her short bob of trailing and slightly graying black hair flowing down her right cheekbone. She had a stern look on her face but she was hardly angry; Opal was her only daughter and her entire world. "I thought you were asleep an hour ago" she scolded, still obliged to be a mother to her daughter.

The little girl tossed and turned in the bed, putting the book to the side for a moment to pull one over on her dear mother. She was too adorable whenever she wanted something.

"But Mom, I was just getting to the best part" she moaned, rolling over onto her back. She was simply so small and her short bob of black hair kept on getting in her face and mouth, her eyes gleaming in the faint trail of dimmed light behind her mother in the nightgown. "Pleeeeaaase?" She asked with the biggest eyes and most adorable face that looked like it was made of dough or something equally as soft.

Of course, her mother could never deny her something when she pulled a face like that. "Oh, can those get any bigger?" Suyin balled rhetorically before closing the door and moving to her daughter on the bed, grabbing the book and opening it to the right page with her Opal in her lap.

She opened the book and the little film resumed with the same dramatic vigor and tone at the voice of the narrator.

Like a Candarian zap-wing overtaking its prey, Amon, and his band of renegades swooped in out of nowhere. They decimated the civilians crew, seized the gleaming cargo or gold, silver and jewels. Then, gathering up their spoils vanished without a trace.

Amon's trove was never found, but stories have persisted throughout the galaxy for years that it remains hidden somewhere in the farthest reaches of the Etherium, stowed with riches beyond imagination.

"The Loot, of a Thousand Nations" Opal joined with the narrator for the final words, she had memorized it so and head read and viewed the book so many times. It was, of course, her most favorite thing in the world. She enjoyed and lived for the tale more than anything, more than watching and obsessing over gliding or sailing or the vids of those solar sailors traversing the Spirit Winds or anything else that made her little seven-year-old life.

Suyin pulled her handkerchief from the pocket of her nightgown, doting upon her daughter who by now must have been as tired as possible with a hyperactive seven-year-old following the energy spike. "Okay sweetie, blow your nose" she checked, one of her usual things she would always check with all her children. Opal did as she was told and blew harshly in the cloth piece but then as her mother was folding it back into her gown the little rascal escaped into the folds of the bed sheets.

"How do you think he did it, mom?" She wriggled upwards and under the pillows to the headboard. "How he swooped in outta nowhere." She leaped from the wooden board onto the bed, only just missing the wrapping of her mother's arms as she tried to catch her in mid-air. "And vanished without a trace" she quoted from the book and hid under the layers of bedding from her matriarchal pursuer.

Her mother acted none the wiser, brushing her strand of blackened hair behind her ear and smiling at how proactive and full of life her baby girl was. It was such a lovely household to live in Suyin had to admit. She had a powerful and loving husband who was brilliant at his occupation and the perfect man to be married too, even if he was a little distant at times of intense stress which could happen for long periods of the year. She had a brilliant and full bundle of children, Opal being the youngest of five in total with two being more than her two handfuls and the other two boys being polar opposites. She, of course, loved all of her children but Opal Beifong was the biggest source of sunshine in her mother's life and always would be.

"I have no idea sweetie" she popped out swiftly before reaching playfully to grab her little girl. "Come here. I'm gonna get you!" She called out as she wrestled for her child, grabbing her by her rather chubby ankle and dragging her over her knee. She whipped away Opal' pajama top to expose the chubby flesh of her stomach and, as a playful mother would she blew grapes against the tender skin, tickling her daughter to no end and forcing her to laugh sweetly. "Okay. Now it's time for this little spacer to go to sleep" Suyin told her with a loving touch of the nose before tucking the seven-year-old back into her bed peacefully.

"You think anyone will ever find The Loot of a Thousand Nations?" Opal asked while her mother reached behind the pillow to pull something that had been making her uncomfortable while reading the story. It was, of course, one of Opal's many toy Bison that she loved to collect; she had a faint obsession with the culture and attire of the old Air Nation.

She placed the Bison back up with the rest on Opal's shelf. "Sweetheart. I think it's more like a legend," she voiced in a very adult way, the way someone may tell their child that a holiday figure is real as they grow older. Like a father would tell their child of nine that Santa doesn't really exist or that the Tooth Fairy is a device to reward infants for losing a tooth and growing up.

Opal, however, was adamant that her fairy tale was nothing but the unfiltered truth. "I know it's real Mom."

"You win. It's real" Suyin presented as a mother would. She planted a soft kiss on Opal's forehead, brushing away the black bangs from her face and moving to the door in order to let her girl sleep at last. "Night sweetie" she voiced, blowing a second kiss.

"Night night Mom" Opal breathed while her mother closed the door slowly and returned to her own room. It took a whole ten seconds of hearing her mother's footsteps followed by a light switch turning off and then a door opening and closing before she could make her own move; she certainly knew her mother's routine while moving to the bed. She grabbed her book and moved under the sheets to read the rest of the story, there was not much left.

There are nights when the solar winds of the Etherium, so inviting in their promise of flight and freedom, made one's spirit soar!

 _Years Later…_

It was the late afternoon, the wind was on her side and the wasteland of the Industrial District of the Planet Zaofu was void of all life and machinery, all buildings and transport, all industry and refinery and therefore she was completely in her element. Opal Beifong, her bangs still in the way of her face threatening to enter her mouth, grew the most exhilarated and defiant grin in her life; her fingers gripping tightly on the wooden handles of her self-made glider, allowing the wind to pass through its sails and herself to be the leaf just as her friends taught her before eventually leaving the planet themselves. She was alive, alive and high in the sky like a bird or an actual leaf caught in the wind. She was nineteen, strong and a determined woman to do whatever she wanted to, to keep her personal freedom at every cost.

Opal always loved gliding in the late midday, just as the sun was beginning to retreat beyond the horizon she always sought to race it, to catch the orb of light burning across the sky. It was how her life found excitement, to escape from being the daughter of a single mother whose children had all left the planet in search of better surroundings that weren't the same four walls of a simple port tavern. Opal had to stay behind but not by choice, she was too broke and had no opportunity to leave the atmosphere for another with more action and freedom. She wanted to desperately to leave, to see the stars and stand on the deck of a vessel traversing the heavens and see all that the galaxy had to offer to her. She wanted to see the distant worlds that made up the Earth Government; the sandstone ruins of modern day Omashu, the grand capital of Ba Sing Se, the scattered islands and sea creatures famous to Kyoshi Prime, all the wonder of the galaxy that was so far away to the metal industrial world of Zaofu. But for now, she was stuck planetside, with her glider keeping her in the air and above the rocky surface of her home, of her mother's home.

She looked down at the terrain and spotted an area for traversing, where could test her flying skills; it was a canyon, vast and varied. She had an idea, crazy and purely insane, one that could just kill her if she didn't execute it correctly and with the right precision. This was what she lived for, the death-defying stunts that could end either way and she would be happy with performing the feat. She was a certain daredevil.

 _Okay, Opal girl, time to show what you're made of_. She steered and jerked her body to the side and upward, catching the wave of the wind that would take her entire body upward and into the cloud layer. Just like a leaf as she wanted so much to be she rose higher and higher, flowing with the wind until she knew she was high enough. Then, in her usual daredevil way she closed her lime green eyes and closed the sails of her glider, turning it back into a staff and ceasing all motion of her fluid and seemingly weightless body and all once she began to fall, hugging her wooden glider closely to her chest while her bangs flowed back to cover her face.

It was electrifying, light riding the lightning of a storm the way she fell so absolute and final as if she were a meteor during a star fall. _You can't kill me. I'll never die here._ It was something she always said to herself in the solitary moments she had before she would have to deploy her glider again. She was falling head first and when she opened her eyes again to see the ground rapidly approaching her her heart skipped a beat and she maneuvered in the air, flicking out the sails of her glider again and catching the current of air to allow her sail in a curve along the ground, close enough to run her fingers along it if she wished; she didn't.

With a large yell from her mighty lungs and a jerk of her whole body she gained some height, spotting a split in the canyon; to the left the path jerked and led to some salt flats and the settlements that would lead home and to the right there was the refinery and foundry complex, a place of work and a restricted area to the law but of Opal Beifong it was another challenge and an obstacle.

She licked her lips determinedly and jerked her body right, heading right to the foundry. If she was caught inside another restricted area then the cops would be on her faster than she could escape them, it may even mean a final trip to detention that her mother had threatened her with a few ties when her liberal personality clashed with the matriarch's lifestyle of capitalism, or rather attempted capitalism, for Suyin life wasn't easy. Opal pushed all thoughts of home from her mind and snapped back to reality as she trails blazed through the main gate, catching her foot on a wooden plank and smashing it to splinters; still, the alarm sounded and she was compromised. Now she had to pick up the pace and escape before security could find their intruder.

There was a large disk grinding drill carving its way into the cliff ahead of her, two disk with vents keeping the staggered saw blade in the center. She could see that there was an interval of when the jaws of the blade crashed into the cliff where the vents were completely clear, allowing a small projectile to pass through if it was fast enough. _I'm definitely fast enough_.

She got really close, so close she could almost feel the waves of air come off the grinder and with another roar from her lungs she closed her sails and turned to hug the staff again. Like a bullet she passed through the vent laughing at how talented and smooth she was. Quickly so she didn't fall right to her death she flicked open the sails a least time and began to climb up the air currents again like a bird, cheering and whooping herself as she felt so great to be alive again. She loved it plain and simple, she loved gliding and she loved the open sky as much as she loved the stories of the Etherium up above with so much life. If only she could just push herself far enough, if only it was possible for the wooden glider to simply push itself past the atmosphere and into those solar winds, for her escape.

There was a faint ringing in her ears, the ringing of doom she was already accustomed to; the ringing low and high tones of a damned police siren.

Opal looked quickly behind her to see them, two mechanic goons with bucket for heads on hovercraft with beeping blue and red lights to match their siren pitches; one was gesturing with its gloved finger downward, they wanted her to land so they could at least detain her and take her home safely.

"Oh, great. Mom's going to love this one" she said aloud almost biting her tongue. If only she weren't a slave to thrill chasing and defying death on a weekly basis.


	2. Lest Her Spirit Fall

_AN: I'm not lagging with these uplods you're lgging_

* * *

 **The Loot of a Thousand Nations**

 **Chapter 2 - Lest Her Spirit Fall**

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The Old Ba Sing Inn was busy as usual, all the locals in for the lunch time rush and Suyin was being swept off her feet, no one else to help her save the chef in the back as she, the waitress, made her way around all the tables with several plates of exotic and local cuisine and drinks.

"Mrs Beifong!" One woman shouted across the room, resembling mostly an octopus with one massive eye in her skull instead of two. She was the raving sort, waving her empty glass as Suyin rushed around the room, setting down plate after plate and replacing more and more glasses.

Suyin sighed as she saw the fish lady. "Yes, I know, refill on the purp juice, coming right up Mrs Ding" she told the tisking woman calmly, trying not run away with the lunch time wave. It seemed to have settled for the moment.

There was a family of frog looking aliens sat in the middle, eagerly awaiting their food that was spread on plates around Suyin's arms. She quickly reached them and began sliding the trays of food around the table.

"Okay, there we go. That's four powdered spheroids," Suyin called out, placing a plate of four differently coloured donuts with powder lightly coated over them by the father. "Two lunar eclipses," a plated of two egg looking things passed to the mother. "And a big plate of Foggy Swamp jelly worms," Suyin chuckled, placing a massive bowl of scrambling live worms in front of the little son, looking more than enthusiastic to devour his boatload of prey. He licked his lips at the moving meal. "For the big boy."

The little frog boy sunk his chubby fingers into the bowl and mashed handfuls of worms into his mouth, chomping down hard on the insects. "Fmawemthome!" The little boy forced out through the mouthful of worms, making Suyin smile.

It had been so long since she had had her children at that size. She missed her sons.

Next, Suyin made her way to the table at the back of the Inn, near the stain glassed windows she's splashed out on when venturing into the business with her ex-husband all those years ago.

Sat at the table intended for four, alone and stacked with a pile of books and papers, in a smart suit and pencil skirt was Doctor Asami Sato of Astrophysics of the University of Zaofu, engrossed in one of her books for which she was referencing in another of her theses on the possibility of 'faster than light' travel. It was poised to revolutionise star travel and how man and alien alike traversed the 'verse. But Asami Sato had hit a snag once again.

The aged hands of the waitress placed two plates of food in front of Asami with a glass of sparkling water beside them.

"Sorry Asami, it's been a madhouse here all afternoon," Suyin excused the large wait on Asami's food.

The book in her young hands closed and was placed atop the stack of six or seven before the beautiful and extremely young Doctor brought her napkin around her neck and into her collar. Her emerald eyes were warm and understanding and her prominent red lips sparkled when she smiled, showing her flourescent white teeth. Asami removed her glasses.

"No problem Su, all part of the usual service," Asami retorted with a brilliantly smart smile. "How's darling Opal doing?" She asked.

Opal and Asami were firm friends, which was surprising given how stuck to books and academics Asami was and how rogue Opal had become upon hitting her teens, and even as she neared their end. Meanwhile Asami had become the youngest human on Zaofu to attain her doctorate and break the mold for women. She was a living legend to some.

Suyin almost bit her tongue before speaking; Opal was hardly a healthy topic most days. "Much better thank you 'Sami," she called, sitting down opposite the Doctor instead of leaving for the fish lady's juice.

"I know she had some rough patches earlier this year, but I really think she's starting to turn things around."

On that note, as if by fate, the wooden front door of the Inn swung open to reveal two tall and heavily built machine police officers with Opal in between them, their hard metal hands on her shoulders.

"Ms Beifong" one called out in metallic monotone.

Suyin completely dropped the plate of dishes she was carrying from the rest of the tables before she could make for the kitchen again. They hit the ground and smashed with a spectacular crash as her face dropped as well as her jaw. "Opal!" She cried out, mortified at her daughter turning up in the hands of the law, again and before the patrons of her legitimate establishment, again.

Asami veered her head away from looking at her friend. "Wrong turn" she sighed in a hushed breath.

The accused Opal cooly tried to escape her captors grasp, sliding from their hands and moving towards the kitchen to escape everything. She couldn't possibly be quick enough however, and soon found herself being pulled back by the automatons again.

The left automaton wheeled in slightly ahead of his partner to address the mother. "We apprehended your daughter operating an illegal gliding vehicle in a restricted area Ms Beifong," he started, again in the same robotic monotone that made the voice put people to sleep almost with his tedious detail of events. "Moving violation nine zero four, section fifteen, paragraph…"

He stopped, somehow forgetting which paragraph Opal had violated, which made completely no sense being a robot, but yet forget it he had.

Opal was rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment, even more so because she actually remembered exactly which paragraph had been abused.

"Six" Opal edged out.

"Thank you," the robot scolded, obeying his etiquette protocols. Opal welcomed the droid in retort and he looked back to Suyin who was still horrified at what was transpiring. "As you aware madam, this constitutes a violation of the girl's probation," he continued to explain.

"No, yes, I understand," Suyin answered flatly and defeatedly in an automated response. She was all so sick of this, of Opal acting out and being escorted home with two police droids and having to force her to answer for it, either by being humiliated in front of a house full of customers or by even paying bail or for any damages, and they were poor enough as it was. "But, could we just-"

"U, excuse me gentlemen," Asami sounded off from behind Suyin, getting embroiled in the mess as well, even though she didn't need to. There was absolutely nothing she could do, but she thought right to help her friend, and Suyin. "I'm the noted astrophysicist, Doctor Asami Sato, perhaps you've heard of me?" Her glasses were on the edge of her nose, making her look smarter and unsurprisingly less intimidating.

The right automaton pointed towards Suyin. "Are you the mother's or the child's partner?" He asked in the exact same monotone as his partner.

Suyin nearly gagged, as did Opal. While Asami was a good friend to both of them, she was far too young for the mother and far too smart for Opal to court.

"Oh gosh no, she's just a good friend of the family." Was Suyin's blatant response.

The automatons took a lean back, before advancing right into Asami's face with their black eyes and large glowing mouths, very much intimidating. "Back off, miss!" They yelled with more pitch than before.

Asami leaped from her skin and nodded, almost terrified that the robots would melt her skin should she say another word to them. "Su, don't ever let me do that again" she whispered on her way back to the table at the very back of the Inn.

"Due to repeated violations of statute one, five, C, we have been forced to incinerate her glider."

That stung Opal right at her heart. Her glider was near enough the only thing she really had to call her own. It was her best friend and the only thing she really owned to herself. She had made it when she was a budding teen, flunking out of school and working nights with her mother to keep her happy. And now it was destroyed. Opal wouldn't build a new one for a while.

"Any more slip ups will result in another one-way ticket to Juvenile Hall."

"Kiddie hoosegow."

"The slammo," the two dabbled between them, a little personality in their cybernetic voices and brains.

Suyin took a second to breathe and collect her thoughts. Maybe it was what Opal needed. Su had tried everything to get through to her, to stop her dear daughter from throwing her life away and ending up in some unknown region of the 'verse with the worst in their region of space. If only she could be more like her brothers who had left home.

But then again, to Opal, what life could she have? It all seemed so pointless to her, to be stuck at home with her mother growing old and serving the weary that showed up for a plate of hot food or a pint of beer to wash their sorrows or bad fortune away. Zaofu was such a backwater planet to Opal.

"Thank you officers," Suyin addressed the robots, looking then directly at her daughter with scolding, yet silently defeated eyes. She'd had beyond enough. "It won't happen again."

There was a clank, analogous to maybe a sneeze or cough from one of the automatons. He was mocking Opal to every degree despite being made of metal. "We see her type all the time Ms Beifong,"

"Wrong choices."

"Dead-enders."

"Losers," they both dabbled again, before making another clanking noise and saluting the room, their metal hats rising from their heads. "Take care now," the left one said politely before looking at his partner. Together they left on their caterpillar tracks, closing the door behind them.

As Suyin waited to talk to her daughter, she realised the Inn was suspended in perpetual silence, and thusly looked back at the room. All the patrons began or resumed their conversations or meals, however with less vigor and enthusiasm, their real appetite in the scene created by mother and daughter.

The other let out a huff, looking to Opal to see if she had anything to say. Opal did not.

"Opal," Su began, already wanting to stop speaking for one day and see through the lunch time customers and take a break from everything, mostly likely with a stiff drink. "I have had it. Do you want to go back to Juvie Hall is that it?"

Opal wasn't looking at her mother, but she was definitely paying attention. She was just too ashamed to respond.

"Opal? Opal, look at me dammit" Suyin commanded and her daughter obliged, with a frown big enough to split a table. Su let out yet another huff of air, just not knowing what the hell to do. There was nothing she could say that she hadn't already said a dozen times. There was just nothing left, no one to call on for aid. No brothers to help guide her. No father to take a different approach.

No father. Not anymore.

That was why Opal was the way she was, acting out, begging for something more, attention, thrills, life, something beyond just spending day after day rolling around on some fringe system with nothing to excite her. It was all because she'd been abandoned. A child no older than ten or eleven and her father simply left without so much as a word or an excuse. It drove both Opal and Su insane, and each had dealt with it in completely polar ways.

Suyin had stuck up her chin and puffed out her breast while Opal decided to crash and burn, taking her life with her in the sorrow and rage that had festered into what was her addiction to thrill and death defying behavior that always resulted in run ins with the law.

"It's been hard enough holding this place afloat alone-"

"Mom, it's no big deal okay?!" Opal detonated, exploding with such emotion. It was because Suyin was about to bring up them being alone, Opal hated it. "There was no one around, those clankers just won't get off my-" She stopped herself, tousling her hair and ruining the lining of her flight suit wings. "Forget it."

The next voice was one that Suyin probably should have seen coming, but Opal and the police had made her forget.

"Ms Beifong? My juice!" Mrs Ding bellowed from the back corner.

"Yes I'll be right there Mrs Ding" Suyin called back, slightly despising the fish woman for choosing now to remind her, seeing how much she was already dealing with. Only a special kind of scumbag would throw her job in her face when she was already dealing with her daughter.

"Opal, I just don't want to see you throw away your entire future."

The daughter rolled her eyes and trudged towards her room on the upper floor without another word, until she reached the stairs. "What future mom?"

Suyin couldn't answer anymore.

When the sun fell behind the horizon and the moon began to flourish, with a dreary overcast and pathetic drizzle of rain long into the night Opal had fully retreated to the roof, a handful of stones in her hands and throwing them far off into the canyon. It had been the worst day for a while, so full of life at the start and then so deflated of everything going forward. So much so that she even contemplated just packing a duffle and leaving, never to return. She was even thinking it would be better on her mother.

Just enough credits to her name would buy her a ticket to the Spaceport and there she could completely disappear, maybe coming back in a few years with her riches that would make her mother proud at last.

But Suyin would never forgive her. Not for leaving without a word. It was Opal's only anchor.

Opal Beifong looked up and to the stars, thinking of how many had names. How many had planets and how many of those planets had life. How many of those lives were better than hers and how many were worse. And then she had a thought.

How many of those lives were exactly the same as hers?

Surely at least one life in the entire 'verse had to be somewhere near hers. How would that one person, with the same life escape? How would they claw out from their backwater planet and into the washing waves of the Etherium?

As she sat on the roof of the Inn looking to the solar seas her answer came crashing down to her, in the form of a crude and unmarked solar sailor, with a pod to house the one shipmate and the engines on fire with smoke pluming out from the back, with tattered sails.

Little did Opal know, what the ship contained.

Or what was vastly behind it.


End file.
